A 40-year-old roadside hawker died allegedly due to heart attack during a drive against vendors in suburban Santacruz in Mumbai by Assistant Commissioner of Police Vasant Dhoble, who was on Saturday transferred in the wake of the incident.
A CID probe has been ordered into the incident.
Dhoble was patrolling the Nehru road area in Santacruz on Friday evening when the hawkers got a whiff of it, and began fleeing the spot but re-arranged the stalls once the police officer left. However, he returned to check the streets again, police said.
Panicked, the hawkers began to run helter-skelter when one of them, Madan Jaiswal collapsed after he allegedly suffered a heart attack, they said.
The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival, police said.
Enraged, several street hawkers gathered outside the Vakola Police Station demanding action against the senior cop.
According to police, while some hawkers claimed that they including the deceased, were beaten up, a few said that Dhoble did not take any harsh action.
However, a CID probe has been initiated into the matter and Dhoble was transferred out of the Vakola division in western suburban Mumbai to the police control room in South Mumbai, police added.
The officer made headlines last year for his infamous raids late night against pubs and restaurants in the metropolis.
